(Preshow) Registration (Where you Sign up IC)

[Gildarts]

This is continued from this thread, A Birthday Party for Molly and also, Gildarts has removed his artifact for this event! Thank you!

[spoiler]
The mage felt his one flesh foot aching with blisters as he sweat through some of the most scalding heat of the year, he had always walked everywhere he ever needed to be, but he was getting pretty old for this game. His amber eyes looked up, last time he had looked up the moon had been beaming and bright, now, the sun was finally starting to fall into the horizon. Where had the time gone? Where had the day gone? Had he set his shoes on autopilot and they had just walked on and on like a little marching wind-up toy?

The Prime sighed and got his bearings as he looked at the path, how tall the trees were and couldn’t tell how long the day would drag on and the trail along with it. He was a frequent here in this verse, the one he always seemed allergic to. Sneezing every time he got a whiff of those trees for the first time. He’d be glad to leave and also leave the Malefactor behind him. She would be in Guu’s safe and trustworthy… Nubs. Can’t rightfully call those hands, but the princess could somehow throw a mean punch regardless.

Bearings, right. No getting distracted because you don’t have a voice in your head to tell you what to do anymore. “Hmm..” he mused audibly, “I think last time I signed up it was in the white-room.”

Gildarts saw the portal to the Nexus waiting in front of him a few feet away. “Huh, how did that get there?”

Well, Gildarts always found it was best to go, usually those shiny gateways brought him somewhere new, his best option to find the white-roomed Nexus was to cross through it. One step and his eyes were immersed in bright, vivid streams of pearl. Yes, this was the place.

“Extra, extra!” A boy selling a newspaper was stating the news, “Hello sir, can you happen to read?”

The child was about Molly’s age and had a strangely tangy accent, one that was very unfamiliar on his ears. In the boy’s hand he held a black and white newspaper, on the front, there was a little flag with stripes lined up in all directions, similar to a star, in the picture on the newspaper and it was being held by someone in a uniform.

The caption read: THE GREAT WAR HAS ENDED! A GREAT VICTORY FOR THE ALLIES!

“Yes,” Gildarts informed the young kid, seeing where this was going.

“Can you tell me what the caption of m’ paper says sir, so tha’ I can sell it better?” the young chap asked.

Gildarts blinked looked at the paper, then he looked around, worried this was a trick of some kind. Then he looked back into the bright eyes of the youth and his heart melted, “Sure, it reads: The Great War has ended, a great victory for the Allies.” He paused, “It is said with excitement.”

“Thanks mister! You’re the best!” the young boy ran off before Gildarts could say anything else, it was at that point did the Prime notice the child was in completely soiled rags. The sounds of his feet clicked as he ran and soon enough in the swarm of beelining people. Within a fraction of a second, the moment like a ghost had disappeared, and the kid was out of sight.

“Look mommy,” this little girl tugged on her mother’s sleeve, she was about thirteen but still had a layer of baby fat in her cheeks, she had tan skin and bleach-blonde hair. She wore a blue longsleeve shirt, one of which was empty. “He looks just like me. Do you think he lost his arm in a shark-attack too? I’m gonna go ask him!”

The little girl bounced free of her mother’s grip and ran up to Gildarts with her curiosity brimming. “Did you lose your arm in a shark attack? Mom says it’s not like to ask, but if I don’t, it always makes me wonder and wonder...”

Gildarts blinked and looked down at his steel arm, then back up to the blonde little girl with the bright blue eyes. “It was… Something like that,” he agreed, “If you lost yours to a shark, you must be a really brave little girl.”

“I still surf, I don’t let it stop me, and I never will!” She declared with the zest of a Fairy Tail mage.

They both looked up, awakened from their exclusive “armless club” conversation by her mother’s strutting heels. Her footfalls were deliberate and powerful, she gave her daughter a dirty look and then narrowed her eyes to Gildarts. Her lips curled into a protective snarl, the Prime was likely just another creep needing to be set straight, so he had to be punished.

SLAP!

It felt like the child’s mother had a steel hand from the slap she’d delivered. “Don’t you ever talk to my daughter again! Come along honey, he could’ve been a bad guy, remember what I told you about them? What happened to your brother? You’ll soil his memory. And well, I won’t have that happen to you, too, now come along.”

The girl’s face quenched into a silent cry, she mouthed “Sorry” to Gildarts as her mother dragged her away.

The mother continued her nagging, “Honey, it isn’t nice to presume to armless people that they want to talk about it either, let’s go dear.” the mother, a more tidy and well-to-do woman wearing a pea-coat and a royal looking hat with a giant plumed feather sticking out of the side of it hushed her daughter and the two moved along, though she had to drag her child by the other arm.

“But mommy… He wasn’t a bad guy…” she sniffled with a soft whimper.

“Honey, you can never tell by their faces,” her mother growled, “Never. Don’t ever forget that. Your brother, God rest his soul, never will.”

Then they were out of sight and out of earshot and Gildarts was left looking at the ghost of his arm, and feeling the flood of memories nearly swamp him away. It had hurt, a lot, before it stopped hurting at all. Losing his arm, that is. The red of his cheek was more numb than heated. The Prime sighed and blinked that woman’s motherly instincts of protection away. Her intentions were good, even if the fact that she had assumed Gildarts was a “bad guy” and still decided to slap him, would’ve likely made him angry and if he was a “bad guy” he could’ve done something bad to her for just her slapping him. Her reasoning was all twisted up. Good intentions gone bad...

Meanwhile the Prime now hesitated at the portal and his cape still glimmered in the transient fluid light. Gildarts looked down at his steel hand, that wasn’t exactly how it had happened. Right now though, he had to stay on track, even when his memories generally caused him to get side-tracked on a regular basis.


“EXCUUUSE me fine-sir, you look like a great, strong, and proud man. Would you say I’m right?”  a man walked up to the Prime wearing a suit and tie and a crooked grin.

“I wouldn’t say so, no,” Gildarts said channeling his inner humility. Never had he bragged about his power. He had only ever used it as a tool to defeat his enemies with. He was only there to wield it, nothing more.

“Well sir, I’d say that a man as modest as yourself deserves the best, wouldn’t ya say? Before you protest sir, you must realize what I’m talking about, fine sir,” the man with the slanted smile winked at the Prime, expecting him to play along and nudged the prime’s ribs, right on top of the bandages that secured them in his skin.

“Ow,” Gildarts winced, he was a prickly bastard, this one. And Gildarts was completely oblivious to the salesman’s nature.

“SO YOU SAY YOU ARE TIRED AND THIRSTY AND IN NEED OF THE PUREST DRINK IN ALL THE OMNIVERSE?” the man practically shouted, there was a flood of sound in Gil’s ear and he cringed now, more confounded and flummoxed than before.

“WELL, THIS BEVERAGE IS FOR YOU!” the said, bending over a cooler he’d been standing in front of and pulling out a glass bottle of, “Pure Perfection! That’s what it is and if you doubt me, taste it! Every Prime who has ever tasted it can never get enough! It is bottled at the source of Omni himself! Come on, give it a taste.”

The suited man cracked open the clear bottle of water and Gildarts looked closely at the printed-on label, it read Fountain Fresh Water! Bottled at the source ©

“Uh… I don’t exactly know you?” Gildarts blinked, squinting as though he were trying to recognize the guy.

“No, but I know you! You’re Gildarts Clive! My new spokesmodel. So drink up, so I can sell these damn things to the unsuspecting masses. They’ll drink anything if endorsed by you. Your poster is all over Camelot, and you’re extremely well known!” The con-man had whispered and then nudged the bottle into his hand.

“I don’t do sponsors unless I get paid,” Gildarts extended his hand back to the guy, reluctant to back anything this slimey looking guy was selling.

“Alright, alright, I’ll give you a cut, but quit it, you’re makin’ people stare in the assuming, skeptical kind of way,” the suited man whispered and shoved the bottle back into the Prime’s hand.

“Where’s it from, exactly?” The mage said, first sniffing the bottle and then holding it up to the ceiling of light.

“Why, Omni himself, of course!” He announced loudly.

A female’s voice interjected as the bystander walked closer, Gildarts shrugged and began to raise the glass to his lips, “If you’re being fair, everything in the Omniverse could be considered to be made from Omni himself. Excuse me,” she said in a presumptuous tone, “ I saw you bottling that at the Nexus Fountain, you know I’ve seen people -one man specifically, I still get chills, burr!- pee in the Nexus fountain, he must’ve mistaken it for a urinal. Another left a blow up doll in there, and not the kind you use in a pool. All you men are filthy.”

Gildarts spit out the water he’d just barely let pass through his lips and nearly hit the poor woman in the face with it. In fact, a splash hit her cheek as Gil gagged at the idea and the woman shouted, “FILTHY!” at him too. Frankly, he didn’t blame her.

Her expression cringed into one of soiled disgust as she thought of the urine and Gildarts’ saliva both forever immortalized on her cheek. She could never wash away the idea or the memory. It was and insulting assault on her self respect and dignity. Never would she be the same. She fled in a huff, she’d tried to be the hero, and gotten water sprayed back in her face.

“Uh, I’m very sorry ma’am,” Gildarts shouted after her, she was strutting off and using her gloved hand to get the spit from Gildarts off of her cheek. Gildarts returned the glass bottle to the peddler who’d basically made him drink diluted pee. The Prime turned his gaze on the sleazy man fully now and Gil shook his head saying, “Not enough money in the world, pal.”
[/spoiler]


Gildarts was about to walk off when a hand grabbed his from the other side of the portal and pulled him back into the Tangled Green verse. The Prime readied himself for a fight but was surprised to see a lanky looking young lad who released Gil’s wrist the second the tall, very muscular Prime turned around.

The secondary’s eyes widened at the dauntingness of the Prime. A shiver of fear ruffled through the Syntech secondary. “O-oh, bruh, sorry I didn’t mean to scare ya, did I hear you say you were looking for the sign-ups? I thought I did, but then I figured you’d gone into the Nexus and like, I chased you down cause I get a kind of commission if you sign up at my booth,” the kid explained. The male was kind of a hippy hipster. He used slang whenever he could and his attitude was totally chill, bruh.

“For… Dante’s Abyss? Are you…” then Gildarts’ eyes noticed the Syntech corporation’s logo on the guy’s shirt.

“Yeah dude! Come here to my tent! You can see how dope it is.” The man who was in his mid-twenties grinned hugely at the man and ushered him over to a little tiki-looking tent that had somehow been weaved into the trees of the Tangled forest. “Like, isn’t it rad? I’m like, going all out for best booth this year, me and one of the other guys has a bet. I’m gonna win though. Wanna know why?”

Gildarts blinked and hesitantly nodded, the middle-aged prime didn’t like to let down the youth of the next generation even if their personalities didn’t always quite “click.”

The sign-up attendant went over to the tent and flicked a switch, “I set this up last night before my shift, some people say the last day is always the hardest to recruit people but I won’t let it stop me.” Twinkling holiday lights hung woven in with the branches of the already cool looking tiki hut. “The next part’s the best,” the boy said as mini fireworks came out of the table and shot off just above the paper, which was more like a fire hazard and a good way to lose the sign-up forms. But liabilities like those were not Gildarts’ forte.

“Isn’t it sick? It’s to celebrate the people signing up and stuff, sometimes they stick around for it, sometimes they don’t, most just go inside after, ” The twenty-something year old smiled and looked up hopefully at the Prime.

Sick… As in ailment? No no, stay on task, if you nod, he might let you through without a… You spoke too soon.

“I’m sorry sir, but is that like, paint, dude? You look like you’ve come from a rave or some kind of… Rainbow themed orgy,” the college-aged attendant observed a few missed-spots of caked on color from Gildarts’ last outing, it was weaved into his auburn hair. A shower before he’d left might have been a good idea.

When Gildarts realized what the kid had implied with the word orgy his eyes bulged with shock, “What? I was at a little girl’s birthday party for the Gods’ sake!”

“Well I mean, if that’s like some kind of orgy, then you’re into some pretty sick stuff, bruh. My niece's birthday party didn’t have any paint spewing like confetti just a cake and a few good friends... Ohhh I get it now, Little Girl’s Birthday is a festival! What verse is it in, hook a bro up?” Silence. “Hey, I ain’t judging you and your tastes, though you are a little old for the emo phase, you’re like, what, a hundred and twelve years old? EDM is really in right now on the west coast though, ever been surfing, bruh?”

“Wha…?” the befuddled prime’s jaw hung open. All the slang and terms he had never heard before was overwhelming on the middle-aged “bro’s” mind.

“OH! Dude, duuude, I totally didn’t realize you were stoned right now, like, you came right from the festival and that’s why the paint, it all makes sense now bruh,” the kid was nodding his head up and down, causing his grunge looking hair to bob, “Don’t worry, I’m getting some when my shift is up here but like, power to ya.”

“I’m not stoned? I tend to break those when they are thrown at me by the villagers,” Gildarts was getting more and more perturbed by their conversation.

“Haa, you must’ve had some harsh enemies bruh, or some bad trips, but hey, life as a secondary, we oppressed gotta rebel against somethin’ somehow. Especially when you work for the Man.” The kid nodded again and clicked his pen, clipboard at the ready, “So what are you doing here?” “

Gildarts was relieved, finally he’d get to where he was going, he wasn’t even sure how many days he had until it started. He wanted to maybe get some sleep for once without the Malefactor controlling his nightmares.

“Here?” he parroted.

“Like why are you joining Dante’s Abyss this year, bruh?” he said.

“I’m on a mission… Sent by a princess.” Gildarts explained.

“A princess? Oh right, now we are roleplaying now too, gotcha,” the secondary scribbled down: Girl problems, probably the sub in the relationship.

“So have you ever participated here before, and uh, are you like, married bruh?” The secondary forgot that the first way to tell that was to check and see if their left ring finger was wearing a band, but that wasn’t always custom for many cultures.

“What? Is that question really on there? Last time I just signed my name after being told it was a cruise ship going back to my home realm which was in danger. Then I died! Well… I mean, I guess not technically since I’m here but, now you want to know about my ex-wife?” Gildarts was perplexed and perhaps a little enraged.

“Aww bruh I didn’t mean to hit two soft spots with one of those stones you break, like I was just curious if you had good taste,” the stoner-secondary writes not responsive to clever jokes about rocks, divorced a hottie and feels bad about it.

Gildarts wasn’t looking at the “bro” anymore and began to walk through the portal prematurely.

“Bruh, you can’t go in there yet! Bruh!? Whoa! Your arm is like, a robot!” the guy said, initially grabbing the Prime’s steel arm and feeling the unexpected chill of metal.

“You gotta sign this first or else no fireworks and no access, bro!” the employee called back, but there was no stopping a Prime that was as dense with muscle as an armless Dwayne “the Rock” wrestler might have looked.

“Oh so I do have to sign?” his ploy had been successful, “Sure,” Gildarts unexpectedly turned back and picked up the pen writing on the dotted line To Carl, -G unknowingly spelling it wrong, granted, he had never seen Karl’s name written down, or rather, the aloof prime would’ve never remembered the correct spelling of the mostly random character’s name anyway. Gil kept walking as the mini chorus of fireworks went off at the flick of the secondary’s switch.

“Bruh! You’ll tell me where Little Girls’ Birthday is at, right? I wanna go next yeaaarrrr!!!!” he called out, but the Prime was gone, he had stepped into the threshold that the Syntech beach-bum couldn’t yet cross.

[spoiler]

A brunette was seen crashing through the forest huffing and puffing, “No! I just saw him! I know I did!” she hollered back to her friend who was lazily following the fortune teller along the pathway. There was no need to get excited, the Prime they were searching for was out of sight. Likely already in the Abyss.

“Did you just see a red-haired Prime sir?” Cana asked, still panting from her run. Cana was a secondary searching for Gildarts and had been since she’d arrived to the Omniverse, she’d had a vision that he died, and it horrified her. Cana was also the daughter of this known Prime, but he didn’t know it. She’d never told him. Now, she wanted him to know, and she also wanted to save his life.

“Uh… Yeah dude, he just signed up for DA,” the syntech employee informed her.

“Well then… Sign me up too,” Cana huffed, she would not be stopped by the idea of competition.

“Listen lady, it can get really dangerous and last year and the year before that people like, totally died. Most were Primes, mind you, but we got some complaints as a company and now we are only allowed to sign up Primes,” he informed her, “Whoaaaa are you like, the princess he mentioned?”

It had dawned on him, but Cana’s brow crinkled, “What? No I’m a wizard, I’m not just any secondary either. Gods, you and your Omniverse rules, Primes this, Primes that, well, some of us aren’t Primes, we aren’t immortal, which means we know that every battle counts, as it may be our last. We fight harder, because we fight to win, or to die. I’m joining and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!”

The brunette was determined as she declared her statement, the man nodded, there was no battling with crazy, he lead her to the location for spectators and told her, “Here you are!”

No, this Syntech bro wasn’t losing his job over a determined wizard who had a death wish. Hopefully, he had just saved her life, he could see why Gildarts had himself some girl problems if this was his very stubborn ex-wife. Yes, he was feeling pretty good, he set the fireworks off again and felt as though he’d saved a damsel in distress.[/spoiler]